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WLBD
WLBD-DT, '''virtual channel 9, is a DBC-affiliated television station serving Liberty City, Liberty State, that is licensed to Varsity Heights. The station is owned by Dorado Media, as part of a duopoly with CW affiliate WLCW (channel 22). The two stations share studios along the Northern Expressway in Bohan. WLBD maintains transmitter facilities located atop Outlook Park, near the neighborhood of Broker. History The signed on the air on July 1, 2016, as an independent station under the call sign '''WGCV. It was able to buy the rights to college basketball and baseball supplementing the usual independent syndicated program assortment such as cartoons, classic sitcoms, older movies, westerns, and reruns of old network dramas. WGCV did not attract many advertisers and relied mainly on old movies, cartoons, religious programs, and syndicated fare. DBC affiliation The station became a charter affiliate of the Dorado Broadcasting Company on September 3, 2016. The network originally wanted to affiliate with a longer-established station in the Liberty City market, however, the station more or less by default, DBC cut a deal to affiliate with WGCV and moved its programming there. The station gradually began taking on the look of a major-network affiliate, picking up more first-run syndicated programs and reducing its reliance on older sitcoms. For most of its tenure as a DBC affiliate, WGCV had been among the network's weakest affiliates. Several DBC shows have garnered ratings so low in the Liberty City market that A.C. Nielsen cannot even rate them since the sample sizes are too small to generate a rating. As a result, WGCV has typically placed fifth among the market's television stations. Because of the station's lackluster performance, there had been recurring rumors about DBC pursuing another station, or at the most, launch a new station with the DBC affiliation. However, Dorado Media had continued to include WGCV as part of affiliation agreement renewals with the group's other DBC-affiliated stations. Most recently, the network extended its affiliation agreement with DBC and Dorado's other DBC stations for five years on October 30, 2014, which would've kept WGCV affiliated with the network until at least September 2020. DBC moves to channel 9 On October 28, 2017, Dorado Media sold WGCV's license in order to form a new station using its existing facilities. As part of the deal, Dorado intended to sell WGCV's license assets, but would still operate that station through shared services and joint sales agreements. as part of a restructuring of the deal in order to address these ownership conflicts, Dorado announced that it would terminate its shared services agreement option. After the sale was completed, the station changed its call sign to WLBD. '''The station then swapped its license; WGCVs call sign was moved to another license. Digital Television '''Digital channels The station's digital signal is multiplexed: Programming Outside of the DBC network schedule. Syndicated programs currently broadcast by WLBD include The King of Queens, Judge Judy, and Access Hollywood. News Operation WLBD presently broadcasts a total of 30 1⁄2 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 5 1⁄2 hours on weekdays, two hours on Saturdays and 1 1⁄2 hours on Sundays). The station has the largest news team in the Liberty City area, which includes around 40 on-air staff members. Gallery WGCV46.png|WGCV logo (July 1, 2016-February 4, 2017) WGCV46-0.png|WGCV logo (February 4, 2017-March 17, 2017) WGCV46-1.png|WGCV logo (March 17, 2017-October 28, 2017) WLBD-NewsChannel9.png|WLBD logo (October 29, 2017-present) Category:Channel 9 Category:Liberty City Category:Liberty Category:DBC affiliated stations Category:Acme Television affiliates Category:Dorado Media Category:Television channels and stations established in 2016 Category:Former independent stations